Date   : Mon, 25 Jun 1990 02:20:36 GMT
From   : tindle@g.ms.uky.edu (Ken Tindle)
Subject: Anyone still remember the Seagate ST-506 hard drive?

I took a Seagate ST-506 hard drive out of a DEC Rainbow 100 with a dead
A-B floppy drive set- my intention was to try it out with a WD XT-GEN
controller in an IBM XT.  I thought it was ten Meg- looks like it isn't.

I wouldn't post this, except that I had a problem while trying to low-
level format that I never saw before, and would like to understand.  I
doubt this old drive is big enough by today's standards to be much force.

Anyway, what I got was this: there is a lever on the side of the drive
connected to the head stepper, so one can "see" the heads move.  At the
start of formatting, I put my finger lightly on this lever, hearing and
feeling the step, step, as I expected; except the lever did not move for
128 steps.  Then it would move forward.  

It seemed to be trying to move backward past track zero for the first
128 times, in other words.  The gold-plated question is: why?  In case 
I bump up against this again, I'd like to know.

And, I suppose if I really expect to use the drive, I need to know the
total number of cylinders, heads, starting reduced write current and 
write precomp cylinder.  Anyone have a chart of Seagate drive specs, or
know where I could call or write to get this data?

It's amazing how much power these old drives eat!  This one's more quiet
than I remember these old full-height drives as being, though.

Cheers.
 
INTERNET:tindle@ms.uky.edu | "Could you please continue the petty bickering?
BITNET: tindle@ukma.bitnet |  I find it most intriguing."   ---    Data, 
Ken Tindle - Lexington, KY |  Star Trek, The Next Generation, "Haven"